The Vineyard Inheritance [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Daish (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 552 pages
• Publisher: Magna Large Print Books (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750516186
• ISBN-13: 978-0750516181
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh, please!, September 19, 2006

By 

Laura Levin Woolf (ma'aleh adumim, israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Vineyard Inheritance (Hardcover)

While Elizabeth Daish does a fairly good job in creating a feel for her time and place (Restoration England) she is unable to avoid the pitfall of many writers of historical fiction, and that is to create charecters with modern sensibilities and thought patterns who just happen to have been living four centuries ago. They also happen to be pretty repellent personalities to boot. The story centers upon a young woman from a simple family, Hope Clark, who is about to be married and is in danger of being raped by the nobleman who owns the estate she lives on. This nobleman wishes to exercise his "droit de signeur" in other words, the right to sleep with her first, as he has done already with other young women in the past. Enter our 'hero,' his son John (his last name is unclear, it is spelled two different ways throughout the book). In order to save the fair maiden from the ravages of his evil father, he simply buys the virginity of a prostitute's daughter and sends her to his father instead. Our hero has no qualms about doing so; the girl is mentally retarded and was destined to be a prostitute anyway, no worries for John. He is aided and abetted in this endeavor by Hope's aunt, Ellen, who also happens to be the family housekeeper and who brought John up after the death of his mother. John unreservedly boasts of his sexual prowess to Ellen (he never has to pay for it), while she wonders how any woman could say no to him. Nice work, Ellen! Next we find out that John and Hope have been in love since childhood and cannot resist one afternoon of passion themselves before the wedding. That Hope is about to marry someone else? What's the problem? Hey, it just happened. Does Hope feel guilty? What for? John is her 'true love,' and besides he did her a favor by awakening her sexuality just in time for her husband. The plot thickens when John's ruse is in danger of being exposed by his father's servant, and Hope and her new husband escape to the new colonies in North America; thanks to a secret stash of money that Hope accepts from the now-remorseful nobleman, who believes that it was indeed she in his bed that night, they are able to settle happily into the new neighborhood without experiencing any of the hardships of colonial life. Hope also fails to disclose this little windfall to her husband, and lets him think that she is merely thrifty. Once settled in Martha's Vineyard, in true politically correct fashion, they make best friends with the local Indian yuppie family up the path whom they treat with genuine honesty and friendship. Other people may steal the Indians' land and exploit them horribly, but Hope and her neighbors wouldn't dream of it! Her deceived husband, by the way, loves Hope too much to think about the fact that their firstborn is an exact replica of hero John. He chooses to belive a story about an affair between Hope's and John's ancestors several generations back that has suddenly, for the very first time, resulted in this family resemblence. John, meanwhile, has married a local heiress for her property. She stubbornly fails to recognize that he is a romantic hero; his ego can't seem to cope with the fact that she's not that into him. To punish her for being shy and unenthusiastic about sex he essentially rapes her while she's pregnant and then once she has their second child, the long-awaited son, tells her to go to hell. When not sexually assaulting his wife he spends his time insulting and denigrating his wife's pious family. Years pass, Sir John and his equally shallow, oversexed children pay a vist to their estate in the New World, which, believe it or not, happens to be just where Hope lives! They meet again, their children fall in love, and liberal democrat Sir John declares that family and status mean nothing to him, his son must have Hope's daughter if he wants her. In true, 17th century fashion, he seems to feel that the most important thing in life is getting some good lovin' and social expectations be damned. The only thing that kept me reading to the end of this story was the hope that something terrible would happen to them all. It didn't, and that was the worst thing of all about this book.